This invention relates generally to communication networks and more particularly to systems for qualifying telephone lines for data transmission. As is known in the art, public switch telephone networks, i.e., so-called plain old telephone service (POTS) lines, were originally designed for voice communications, which cover a limited frequency bandwidth (i.e., about 4 KHz). Today, it is desired to use the same POTS lines for data transmission. Data signals, however, generally have different frequency characteristics than voice signals. As a result, a POTS line that works well transmitting voice signals might not work well, or at all, for data signals. Telephone companies need to know which lines are suitable, i.e., qualify, and which lines are not suitable for data transmission. Telephone companies also need to know why particular lines are unable to support data transmissions and where such faults occur so they can determine whether the transmission line can be corrected.
There are problems for telephone operating companies (TELCO's) attempting to qualify subscriber loops for delivery of data. One problem is strategic. Telco's are reluctant to deploy emerging technologies for the delivery of data (e.g., ISDN or ADSL) because there is uncertainty in their knowledge that sufficient of the subscriber loops are of high enough quality to make deployment economically successful. This discourages early adopters because there is significant risk in being first to deliver a technology that may not work in their access network. If Telco's could be given a technology to take much of this risk out of initial deployment, they can secure market share and lead in the face of competition
An additional problem is tactical and comes after a Telco has made a decision to deploy a particular technology. There is a need to qualify, either pro-actively or reactively, specific lines for service as that service is requested by subscribers or targeted by the Telco for delivery. Line Qualification is the overall ability to make statements about the quality of a subscriber loop as it relates to its ability to deliver voice communications (i.e. POTS), or data services. Disqualification is the ability to make a statement with a high degree of confidence that a subscriber loop will not support a data service without remedial actions. Pre-qualification is the ability to make a statement with a high degree of confidence that a subscriber loop will support a data service without remedial actions before attempting to deploy such data services.
When a Telco is able to market and deliver the new service, they would like to target those subscriber loops most likely to support the service out of the box and/or with a minimum of work. As another example, a Telco receiving a new service request from a subscriber desires information to either accept or reject that request for new service based on the condition of the line associated with the subscriber.
A telephone company would like to pre-qualify a line for high data rate operation, such as ISDN and ADSL. Lines that have been pre-qualified can be leased at a higher price. Lines that fail the pre-qualified testing would not be made available for these high data rate services.